A “FEELGOOD” EVENING AT HARTFORD HOUSE
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 10:08PM 
Emperors Palace Ready To Run Dinner at Hartford House
(Image : Hartford House/Summerhill Stud)
READY TO RUN GALLOPS DINNER AT HARTFORD HOUSE
Charl Pretorius www.racingweb.co.zaWay down yonder, in the hills on the outskirts of Mooi River, Mick Goss welcomed his guests for the annual Summerhill Emperors Palace Ready To Run “Breezing” dinner, hosted by the farm’s multiple award-winning guest house and eatery, Hartford House.
Hartford, with Chef Jackie Cameron at the helm, has just been named South Africa’s Best Restaurant, pipping Franschoek’s legendary world Top 10 restaurant Le Quartier Francais to this truly distinguished title.
Racing’s luminaries have come from near and afar to see Summerhill’s two-year-olds gallop on the farm track on Friday. Also to get a shot of what we might call “Feelgood”.
Feelgood entails that the world suddenly takes on a deeper meaning, everything seems friendly and inviting. Almost like the warm feeling you get from popping two anti-depressant tablets at once. With every sip of Hartford’s quality Cab, one feels more in touch with nature and goosies creep up the spine as guinea fowls cry over there somewhere and the smell of spring flowers and herbs drift in on a gentle breeze.
Feelgood really is the only way to describe a visit to Summerhill and Hartford, where Master of All Mick, his extraordinary people skills aside, has built a Stud Farm of breathtaking beauty and where his wife Cheryl has turned an old Colonial home into a luxurious country house awash with rich, homely colours and brimming with 20th century splendour.
To interpret all of this, without ever being in your face, is a staff of professionals painstakingly trained in the little things, yet completely natural in their demeanour and going about their business with pride, as if they, themselves, were the owners of Hartford.
It seems as if Mick and Cheryl have many daughters and sons, a big happy family capably led by delightful ‘older sisters’ Linda Norval and Heather Morkel, and comprising of several talented young people in which Mick has entrusted Summerhill’s horse operation.
There is a welcoming dance on the Hartford Lawn – 20 or more Zulu youngsters jump up and down in traditional gear and bang drums. We witness the astonishing natural energy and fitness of the dancers as they strut along unabated with all limbs moving.
Mick tells the story of nearby Spioenkop, where once the political giants Churchill, Botha, Smuts and Ghandi converged simultaneously, and of the mighty Zulu army that defeated the British. He loves the Zulu culture and has an enormous pride in the status it enjoys all over the world.
Hotel Manager Paula comes along to tell us about the treats on this evening’s menu… corn and coconut soup, tuna tartar, confit duck slow-cooked for 10 hours and chocolate nemesis, dark chocolate complimented by segments of orange.
There are little gasps of occasional delight as dinner is served, course by course, mixed with laughter emanating from those sitting near an in-form Jehan Malherbe.
Mick hauls out some private stash, a bottle of Waterford ‘Jem’, named after Dimension Data’s Jeremy Ord and available in the Hartford Diamond Wine Collection at around R2,000 per bottle.
That’s a rough estimate of about R700 per glass for Mick, Nico Kritsiotis and I, or R100 an hour for the next 7-odd hours of peaceful rest on a Hartford Double bed, Jem’s Bordeaux blend flowing merrily through our tired veins.
Yeehaah! Tomorrow (after breakfast on the veranda) we’re gonna pick ourselves some horses!
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Reader Comments (4)
After having arrived back in Johannesburg last night, I thought it would be
remiss of me not to jot both of you an e-mail today.
Tandi and I are deeply grateful and taken aback by your kind generosity and
hospitality at Hartford and Summerhill over the past few days. We were
overawed by the kindness and friendship amongst all who attended the two
nights there and wanted to thank you both for absolutely everything which
made us feel very special and privileged.
On a final note, your staff were brilliant and you can be proud of running
the most professional establishments that are Hartford and Summerhill. May
you enjoy many more No. 1 awards which you so richly deserve.
Thanks again to you both,
Nico and Tandi Kritsiotis.
Thank you both very much for a most enjoyable stay at Hartford House. We thoroughly enjoyed staying in one of your finest suites and dining in such a superb restaurant with outstanding food. The gallops were a great success and you have a brilliant team.
We cannot thank you enough for such a lovely time and it was great to see you both.
Many thanks.
All the best
Joey and Fee
Kind regards Jules'
You have been the most wonderful hosts, full of attention, generosity and discreet availability during our stay, in spite of the week being probably amongst the busiest of your year. Thank you for ‘prompting’ Micheline and I to have the opportunity to join the Maigrots and Edouard, to know you a little more and to enjoy your hospitality in such grandeur so rich in history, landscapes, stunning horses and a grand old magical house…. and all offered with so much simplicity and great straightforward kindness and friendship.
The values that you uphold of quality, of beauty, of excellence but also of evident fairness and loyalty to your staff, of attention to your compatriots who need recognition and a chance in life, of service to tradition and history but also of daring for the future make you both very special persons to know and to have the pleasure to have met. The way you coped with bad Trou-d’Eau-Douce weather and the rusticity of the bungalow had already told us a good part of the story. The way you cherish what you have and spontaneously share it with others tell the rest.
If we enjoyed thoroughly the excitement of the gallops and the visit of the stud farm with the great proud stallions and patient mares with their foals at Summerhill, and the excellence of the cuisine, of your hospitality and of comfort at Hartford House, you cannot know how well the last week-end at Pennington crowned our short stay. The old house is charming for us old “colonials” and your team there personifies kindness and service. Dudu is the old nanny Edouard and I had when we were young and she even cooks like her!
It was pleasant to relax, walk on the beach, “poach” some of your mussels and enjoy life quietly with some good wine and rugby and racing! When we left, the sun was shining and the return trip was uneventful…Strange to be back home, without the vast expanses of Africa, the grandeur of the mountains, the kilometers of beach, the gorgeous old Houses and horses bred for Gods!
Another country, another beauty. We do not complain about our lagoons and hills, our beaches and our sunsets. It is even pointless to compare. We are so grateful that thanks to you we have seen, appreciated and tasted some gems of South Africa we simply did not know.